Here's Chapter 2! A little shorter than usual, but I hope you enjoy!
Mike raced across the city, dodging piles of rubble, fallen buildings, and any other obstacle that got in his way. Occasionally, he would glance over his shoulder to check and see if anyone pursued him.
He stopped at a bent lamppost to catch his breath. Brushing his dirty blonde hair away from his eyes, he heard voices.
All senses on high alert, Mike nimbly ducked into the shadow of a nearby building. He stood behind the building as the voices got closer.
When he was in hearing range, Mike realized that they weren't voices. They were more like grunts and weird snuffling noises.
-Scavengers.- he thought, and his grip on the spray paint can loosened. -I could probably fight them off; it doesn't sound like there are too many of them.- He hears the noises coming closer, and he prepares to attack the scavengers if they noticed him.
But the noises pass, and he waits until they leave. Mike cautiously stepped out, scanning his surroundings. When finding nothing out of the ordinary, he bolts across the street.
He grinned to himself. -Jeremy's never gonna believe this. Defiling Fuckbear's property, getting chased by two of those murderous robots, escaping, AND passing by a group of scavengers. And he thought I could never do it.-
Mike turned, running into an alley not unlike the one he hid in from the animatronics. He took a few more turns, climbed over a fallen skyscraper and kept running, feeling the cold night air rushing against his skin.
After what seems like an eternity, Mike stopped in front of a cluster of boulders and fallen buildings, so high that no one could possibly climb over it. He went up to a boulder and pressed his hand against it.
A green light flashed under his palm, and a quiet beep ensues. A rectangular hatch slides smoothly up, and Mike ran in, not watching where he was going.
He crashed into a person going out, and said person falls over.
"OW! God damn, who the fuck do you think you are you are?" the person on the floor snarls, clambering up to face Mike.
Mike scowls and prepares a stinging retort until he sees who it is.
"Fitzgerald?"
"That's Mr. Fitzgerald to you, Mikey Boy." The brunette grins, all signs of fighting gone from his face.
"You know I hate it when you call me that."
"Which is exactly why I do it."
Mike snorts and remembers the can he was holding. He looks down at it, and back at Jeremy.
"Oh yeah. Guess what? I did it."
Jeremy backs away, eyes widening, his dark brown gaze flicking from the can to Mike's blue ones. "Really? No way."
"Yes way. I won't turn down a dare, even as one as insane as this. And I'm not counting that last one."
"Well then. Congratulations." Jeremy turns to go back inside the boulder when he looks back at Mike. "One last thing. What took you so long?"
The blonde sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. "About that…erm…I got tailed."
His friend's eyes light up. "How many?"
Mike sighs. See, this was the thing about the short-tempered brunette. Instead of screaming and running around like a chicken without a head to tell Aureus about tracking and shit, Jeremy just sits back and asks like he doesn't have a care in the world. And he reacts as if it were nothing.
"Two. With a crossbow and a plasma cannon."
Jeremy whistles appreciatively. "I was going to ask if you beat the crap out of them, but then I remembered you left your sword here."
Mike rolls his eyes, pushing past Jeremy to walk into the boulder. "Thanks for finally reminding me."
Jeremy snickers and follows him in.
The two step into an enormous field, cleared of all rubble and debris. The floor was hard, packed dirt, and green tarp tents are scattered around the area. Extinguished campfires are in front of most of the tents, the still-warm coals sending smoke signals into the black sky above. The wall behind towers above them, spreading out and curving inwards, forming a circular barrier that encompasses the whole field.
Mike jogs across the field, where another giant wall looms ahead. Instead of boulders, however, this wall is made up of smooth concrete. Like the last one, he simply presses his hand against it and the same green light flashes underneath.
"Section 2: Authorization granted. You may proceed." a computerized voice proclaims as another rectangular hatch of the wall slides up. Mike stops and waits for Jeremy, who was taking his sweet ass time to walk from one side of the section to the other.
"Hurry up or I'm going to leave you here." Mike says, leaning against the wall. "You don't want to get stuck watching the new recruits again, don't you?"
Jeremy rolls his eyes and catches up to Mike. "Oh yeah, speaking of new recruits, there's a new batch of them coming tomorrow."
"So I should've left you out there."
"No, you idiot. It means that Fritz is done with his classified invention." The short brunette makes air quotes around the word "classified".
"Finally. Has he showed you?" Mike asks, stepping into Section 2.
A sly grin forms on Jeremy's face and he walks ahead, looking back at Mike over his shoulder. "More than that. I got to try it out."
Mike stares at him in disbelief. "What? Why did he let you?"
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"That's because it is bad. Did you destroy it in any way?"
"Nope. After I found out why he did it, I won't lay a finger on it without his permission."
Mike raises an eyebrow. This was news. Jeremy never asked permission to do anything from anyone, much less from someone younger than him.
"Anyways," Jeremy says, walking away. "you're the one who has to hurry up if you want to see what it does."
"Oh, it's on," Mike mutters, and he races into Section 2, completely blowing past Jeremy.
"Wha-no, that's not fucking fair!"
"I thought you told me to hurry up!" Mike yells, making his way towards yet another wall in front of him.
Section 2 was a slight upgrade from Section 1. The floor was now cement, and there was a glass ceiling overhead. In perfect rows encircling the entire section were large, white, pill-shaped objects. Mike dodges these as the other wall gets closer.
He reaches the wall and slams his hand on it triumphantly. He waits until the wall authorizes his print and rushes into the third section, not bothering to stop for Jeremy.
Mike makes a beeline towards a stone apartment-like structure. The same structures filled the section, seemingly constructed from the stone in which they were set upon.
The blonde gets to the door and fumbles in his pockets for something. When not finding said object, he frowns and rifles through them again, setting the spray paint can down to search easier.
He fails to find the object for the third time until he realizes something. Mike spins around, snatching the can up, his face flushed.
"JEREMY! GIVE ME MY FUCKING CARD!"
The brunette saunters over, whistling. "Which one, Mikey Boy?" he takes out a blue plastic card and twirls it around. "This one?"
Mike stomps up to him and takes the card, almost ripping Jeremy's hand off in the process. "Yes. This one." He snarls, voice dripping with disdain.
"You really have to control that pickpocketing habit of yours, Fitzgerald." Mike says, swiping the card through a slot in the door where the doorknob was supposed to be.
"That's like telling Fritz he has to memorize all the upgrades he's done on that stupid rabbit thing he calls a weapon."
"So it's impossible."
"Pretty much."
Mike frowns. The door wasn't opening. He swipes the card again, and the door gives no sign that it had read his card. He swipes again.
Jeremy curses under his breath. "I told Fritz to lock the damn door!" He pushes it open and looks inside.
"Fritz, are you alright?" Jeremy yells into the apartment.
Mike looks at his friend warily. "Of course he would be alright; you didn't leave him here with anything dangerous, did you?"
Jeremy looks at Mike. "About that…he told me he could handle it, and I asked him, and he told me he was fine, and-"
He was cut off by a loud crash that seemed to have come from the kitchen. A bloodcurdling screech was heard, followed by more crashing and another screech.
Mike stares at Jeremy in horror. "What exactly does this "invention" do?"
The brunette grins, as if what sounded like dying screams hadn't erupted from the within the house.
"It clones things, of course. Now, come in before we kill it without you."
Author's Note:
Wow. People actually liked this.
Big GIANT thanks to all the reviewers, including: Fox-Hero, Ando machine, Guest, and FanFicWrighter78.
Remember to read, review, and have a nice day!